Welcome everyone.
We just want to have a quick
little conversation about the
differences between the CPC,
the COC,
and the CIC exams.
This is a question we get
really frequently.
So we put together a little
comparison table here to go
through the differences with
you.
The predominant difference
between the CPC,
the COC,
and the CIC is
what environment are you
working in.
If you are doing the CPC
exam...
That's a certified professional
coder. When we talk about
professional,
we're talking about you are
typically doing coding for
a physician or another
qualified health care provider
like a nurse practitioner or
physician assistant.
But you're actually doing the
billing for the physician.
For both the COC and the CIC
you are typically working for
the facility the hospital
that type of thing.
And the difference between
those two is what part of the
hospital are you coding for?
Are you coding for the
outpatient? If so you're
looking at the COC- the
hospital outpatient side.
Or if you're coding for the
inpatient facility you're
looking at the CIC.
We talk about inpatient we're
talking about those patients
that are admitted for an
overnight stay or often times
longer than that.
Outpatient- think emergency
room. Think same day surgeries.
Even some of your PTOT
speech laboratory
pathology services those types
of things where you might go to
the hospital for a procedure
but you're not kept overnight
you're going to go home the
same day.
That's the biggest difference
between these three.
This grid that we've got up
right now also shows you the
difference in the exam
content.
So for example for the CPC...
the CPC is completely multiple
choice.
Totals 150 questions.
The questions are divided up
amongst the categories listed
here. So there are
about 60 questions across
the surgery section of CPT
or the current procedural
terminology.
There are
10 questions on evaluation and
management, eight on the
anesthesia,
10 on radiology,
10 on path and lab,
10 on the medicine section.
There are 16 total
across medical terminology and
anatomy.
There are 10 that are
exclusively on ICD 10
CM.
There are at least five
questions all about hcpcs codes
and modifiers.
And then there are some
questions on the coding
guidelines and some of the
compliance and regulatory
things. The basic Medicare
questions that sort of thing.
Those are all of the areas on
the professional side because
that's what you usually have to
know to code for a physician.
The COC you're going
to notice that it tests on all
of those same areas.
Right. These are matched up -
row for row.
So what they do is
they decrease or increase
the number of questions and
some of those categories.
Anything that's in light green.
They've cut back the number of
questions.
So surgery cases instead of 60
you're only going to see 40.
These other areas of CBT
instead of about I think 58
you're only going to see 20 but
they're going to increase the
number of questions in this
middle color green.
So there's a couple of more
questions on midterm.
Few more on anatomy,
a whole bunch more on diagnosis
coding right? Your ICD 10 cm,
and about double the number of
questions on hcpcs instead of
five you're going to have 10.
They ask one less question on
coding guidelines the same kind
of information on compliance
and regulatory.
But down here in the dark green
they ask brand new questions
that they wouldn't ask on the
professional side.
And these are all about payment
methodology because if you're
coding for the facility you
need to know what kind of
facility you're working in and
how they get paid.
Right. There's different
perspective payment systems
depending on the type of
facility you're coding for.
So you get asked about 20
questions all around payment
methodology.
The overall exam for the CSC
is still 150 multiple choice
questions.
So it's extremely similar to
the CPC.
And actually if you look at
most courses,
the first part of the course is
the same information that you
have as the CPC.
The difference is now we're
going to give you a bunch more
education on payment
methodology so that we make
sure that you understand
that the payment is different.
And they're also going to test
you on a little bit different
surgeries than you would see
from a professional provider.
Your CPC is right those doctors
could be anybody and they could
be performing just about any
type of surgery.
Well the hospital outpatient
only allows certain services to
provide outpatient.
Right? Like you're not going
to do a bilateral
lung transplant in the
outpatient side of things.
We're not going to replace
their lungs and send them home
that day. That's not how it
works.
So that's not a case you would
ever see on this exam.
It's going to be specifically
geared towards surgeries that
are typically provided in an
outpatient unit or procedures
that are typically provided in
an outpatient unit.
So it's different than the
professional.
Those credentials are very very
similar. However you'll notice
all of the categories are the
same. It's just the number of
questions that they're asking.
The third credential that we're
going to talk about briefly is
the CIC that's the in-patient
hospital.
Now this credential is
completely different than the
other two.
I won't say completely
different. Some of the areas
are a little bit similar but
it's different in structure and
it's different in content.
Instead of a 150 multiple
choice questions there
are 60 multiple choice
questions which are all of
these first categories except
for this very bottom bright
green box. Those are total 60
questions but this very bottom
box says that they have coding
cases.
These are not multiple choice.
These are fill in the blank
and they average according to
the AAPC about 110
codes across those
10 cases.
So one case may have 12 codes.
One may only require ten codes.
Just depends
on which code case you're
looking at because you're
coding both diagnosis and
procedure codes.
But you're not... the other big
difference you're not using any
CPT codes.
See that's completely blank.
There are no CPT codes in the
inpatient facility side.
Instead you're using ICD 10
PCS. So it's a different
concept.
They do still ask you about Med
term and anatomy.
They talk about ICD 10 CM
diagnosis coding.
They ask you questions on
compliance and payer
regulations,
payment methodologies,
just like they did on the
outpatient side.
On the inpatient side,
they ask you about payment
methodology.
Some people ask me "why did
they ask about outpatient
payment methodology?" Well you
need to know both of them if
you're working for a facility
because if you're working in
the outpatient side... what
happens if you have a patient
that becomes an inpatient?
Same thing if you're working on
an inpatient side what if that
patient started out on the
outpatient side?
Does it affect how you get
paid? So they ask you some of
those basic questions.
There are two new categories
for the CIC as compared to the
other. The other sections.
Not that you don't have coding
cases on both the CPC and
the COC.
Prefer the CIC these are
completely fill in the blank.
The other two exams are
multiple choice.
So that's a huge difference.
The other area that is
different for the CIC is
instead of focusing on coding
guidelines,
now they're asking you about
medical record documentation
guidelines you know how long
does a provider have to make a
correction in a chart?
How do they make that
correction? Are there certain
protocols that they have to
follow and what does that have
to look like? And all of that.
So those two areas are
significantly different
than the COC in the CPC.
So when we look at these three
credentials the biggest thing
that you need to know is you're
looking at trying to determine
which one is for you.
The CPC is geared
towards those that are coding
for the physicians and the
other qualified providers.
Okay you're on the professional
side.
The COC and CIC are for
the facility- you're working
for the the hospital usually.
And the difference there is COC
you're working in a hospital
outpatient department.
Think: Emergency Room,
same day surgeries,
outpatient therapies,
that sort of thing.
Where with the CIC you're
coding for the hospital for
those patients who were there
for an inpatient admission.
They were usually there several
days- major surgeries.
They may have had an infection.
Those types of things so the
services are a little bit
different.
That's kind of a baseline of
the difference between these
three.
If you want more information on
these credentials go out to
the AAPC Web site
you'll actually find that they
give a listing just like we do
here of the breakouts
of how many questions in each
section and if you click on
those breakouts it will give
you more details on- OK when we
say "HCPCS Level 2," here
are the types of questions we
might ask you about. We might
ask you about modifiers.
We might ask you about
medications.
Might ask you about Medicare
specific procedure codes.
But I hope this kind of gives
you a high level overview
of the difference between the
CPC,
the COC,
and the CIC as you try to
determine which credentials are
right for you.
Thanks and have a great day!